Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-229664 discloses a known technique for preventing unauthorized operations of an electronic apparatus. The technique employs a lock system that makes it impossible to remove removable media from the electronic apparatus unless a predetermined authorization procedure is followed. The predetermined authorization procedure may be a process that requires a password to remove the removable media.
The technique disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-229664 may protect against unauthorized removal of removable media from an electronic apparatus, and thereby help prevent such removable media from being stolen. It is difficult, however, to avoid increases in cost, size, and complexity of such electronic apparatus if a mechanical lock system, such as the system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-229664, is employed in order to prevent unauthorized removal of removable media.